Machine for cutting buttons from shoes



(No Model.)

T. E. LEWIS.

MACHINE FOR CUTTING BUTTONS FROM SHOES.

No. 390,868. Patented Oct. 9, 1888.

I 55 7 WE- UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

THOMAS E. LEIVIS, OF VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI.

MACHINE FOR CUTTING BUT'T ONS FROM SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 390,868, dated October 9, 1888.

Application filed June 5. 1888. Serial No. 276,123.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS E. Lewis, of the city ofVicksburg and State of Mississippi, have invented certain Improvements in a Device for Cutting Buttons from Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention, in common with others of its class, is for the purpose of cutting the stitches which hold the buttons to the shoe, in order that they, or others, may be fastened by means of more permanent devices; and it consists in a combination of contrivances, all of which cooperate to form a machine whereby either the right or left shoe may be operated on, as will hereinafter fully appear.

In the further description of the said invention, which follows, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, and in which- Fignre I is an exterior front view of theimproved machine, and Fig. ll an edge View of the same. Fig. III is a section of a part ofthe invention, taken 011 the dotted linear 00, Fig. I.

Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts in all the figures.

In the said drawings, A is a stand, and B a slotted tube having branches 0 and D leading, respectively, to the right and left, to suit the reversed curvature of the row of buttons on the right and left shoe.

The tube B is preferably made ofsheet metal, and to its back is fastened a flange, 1), which lies closely in contact with the face of the stand, to which it is secured in any suitable manner.

Near to the bottom of the stand A is a hole, f, which passes entirely through the stand, and over this hole on the front side of the stand is secured aconducting-box, E, having a sharpened front edge, which answers the purpose of a knife to sever the buttons from the upper as thestitches which hold them in place are forced (No model.)

in contact with it in the operation of the ma chine, as hereinafter described. At the rear side of the stand and opposite the holef is another box adapted to receive the buttons as out from the shoe, and this box F is preferably made so as to be removable in order that it may be emptied of its contents.

It is necessary to the operation of the machine in a satisfactory manner that the knifeedge of the box E should stand a certain distance in front of the tube B, so that thestitches, and not the necks ofthe buttons, will comein contact with it, and the relative positions are more easily arranged by having the knife independent of the tube than connected to it.

In using the machine the row of buttons is placed in one of the branches of the tube and the shoe forced rapidly down, when, as each button comes to the k nife-edge of the conducting-box E, it is severed from the upper, and, falling to the said box, passes through the holef to the box F.

I claim as my invention- 1. In combination with a stand, a slotted tube having two branches, one leading to the right and the other to the left, and abox situated under the said slottedtube having a sharpened front edge, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. In combination with a stand, a slotted tube having two branches, one leading to the right and the other to the left, a box situated under the said slotted tube having a sharpened front edge, and a second box in communication with the first, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

THOMAS 'E. LEWIS.

\Vitnesses:

PRENTISS LEWIS, H. B. VANDENBURG. 

